Tagged / midwifery

An Appreciate Inquiry into NHS Maternity Services

BU research, Featured academics, NHS, Research communication, research methods, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

 

 

Congratulation to Dr. Rachel Arnold and her Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health research team on the publication yesterday of their paper ‘I might have cried in the changing room, but I still went to work’. Maternity staff balancing roles, responsibilities, and emotions of work and home during COVID-19: An appreciative inquiry [1].   This paper focuses on how to support staff and enhance their well-being in a small UK maternity service.  The underpinning methodological approach is appreciative inquiry using interviews with 39 maternity staff and four group discussions exploring meaningful experiences, values and factors that helped their well-being.

The key findings are that maternity staff members were highly motivated, managing a complex melee of emotions and responsibilities including challenges to professional confidence, mental health, family situation, and conflict between work-life roles. Despite staff shortages, a demanding workload, professional and personal turmoil, and the pandemic participants still found meaning in their work and relationships.  The authors go on to argue for a ‘whole person’ approach, since this approach provided insight into the multiple stressors and emotional demands staff faced. It also revealed staff resourcefulness in managing their professional and personal roles. They invested in relationships with women but were also aware of their limits – the need to be self-caring, employ strategies to switch-off, set boundaries or keep a protective distance.  Overall, the paper concludes hat staff’s well-being initiatives, and research into well-being, would benefit from adopting a holistic approach that incorporates home and family with work. Research on emotion regulation strategies could provide insights into managing roles, responsibilities, and the emotional demands of working in maternity services. Emotion regulation strategies could be included in midwifery and obstetric training.

This paper was proceeded by a more methodological paper on the application of Appreciative Inquiry in this study [2].

 

References:

  1. Arnold, R., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2023) “I might have cried in the changing room, but I still went to work”. Maternity staff managing roles, responsibilities, and emotions of work and home during COVID-19: an Appreciative Inquiry, Women & Birth (online first) 
  2. Arnold, R., Gordon, C., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Why use Appreciative Inquiry? Lessons learned during COVID-19 in a UK maternity service, European Journal of Midwifery 6 (May): 1-7.

The Journal of Asian Midwives’ 10th anniversary

Featured academics, international, open access, Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

This week the Journal of Asian Midwives published its latest issue.  Celebrating a decade of publishing, this is the first issue of volume 10.  The journal is Open Access and freely available online for anybody who wants to read it (click here!).  In the editorial of this new issue the editors highlighted online events around the International Day of the Midwife, the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) Triennial Congress in Bali, Indonesia in June, and the acceptance of the Journal of Asian Midwives by SCOPUS [1].  The editorial finishes by highlighting new additions to the journal, including the opportunity to submit short research proposals, or proposals for improvement in service or practice, blogs and from the next issue onwards, short view point articles.

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Jan, R., Mubeen, K., Musaddique, A. (2023) Editorial – summer 2023. Journal of Asian Midwives, 10(1): 1–3.

Fitness to Practise paper published

BU research, Clinical Governance, NHS, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

Congratulations to Megan Jadzinski, Sara White, Sue Way and Dominique Mylod on the acceptance of their paper ‘How are Fitness to Practise processes applied in UK Higher Education Institutions? – A systematic review’ by the international journal Nurse Education in Practice.  All authors are based in the Faculty of Health and Social Science, or were as Prof. Sue Way retired recently.

Well done,

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

BU Midwives attend the International Labour and Birth Research Conference

BU research, Postgraduate Research, Research news

Based in Cumbria, the International Labour and Birth Research Conference, previously known as the Normal Birth Conference, has been a highlight in the midwifery calendar for over two decades. Hosted by Research in Childbirth and Health (REACH) Group at the University of Central Lancashire, speakers and delegates travel from around the world to attend this prestigious event. The theme for this year’s interdisciplinary conference was ‘evidence knowledge and creativity; optimising safety and personalisation in maternity care’.

Several midwives from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) at Bournemouth University presented their work. Dr Laura Iannuzzi presented under the title ‘Co-designing respectful maternity care in a slum area: methodological considerations from an international multidisciplinary research in Nairobi’.

Dr Juliet Wood & Dr Jane Fry shared their work, ‘Understanding concepts of normal/physiological labour and birth – evidence from a thematic analysis of the views of student midwives across the globe’. Prof Vanora Hundley and Anna Marsh, clinical academic midwife, hosted a workshop called ‘Dissemination and impact: policy makers and the media’. The team also participated as members of the International Early Labour Research Group in a workshop and symposium.

The conference is a great opportunity for emerging researchers. Two of CMMPH postgraduate researchers had the opportunity to share their work with midwives from across the globe. Anna Marsh presented her recently completed MRes work titled ‘How do midwives portray birth on Instagram? A content analysis of posts from the USA, UK, New Zealand and Australia’.

Vanessa Bartholomew, clinical academic doctoral midwife, presented ‘The RETHINK Study: A study to determine if pregnant women who pain catastrophise are more likely to attend hospital during the latent phase of labour’. We are very proud to say that Vanessa’s poster won the conference competition for ‘Best Scientific Poster’!

International Early Labour Research Group

BU research, Postgraduate Research, Research news

This has been a busy few months for the International Early Labour Research Group (IELRG), which comprises members from across the globe. We had the opportunity to get together at the International Labour and Birth Research Conference in Grange over Sands this month, where early labour was a strong theme.

The IELRG held a workshop looking at how latent phase labour is defined. This was followed by a symposium on early labour with presentations from the USA and Europe.

The Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health at Bournemouth University was well represented. In addition to participating in the workshops, the team had a couple of posters.

Vanessa Bartholomew, clinical academic doctoral midwife, presented her doctoral work on pain catastrophisation. Congratulations to Vanessa for winning both the daily and overall prize for Best Scientific Poster!

Vanora Hundley, Professor of Midwifery, presented a study looking at how perceptions of pain established prior to pregnancy can influence decisions about labour and birth.

The International Early Labour Research Group with be launching a special issue of Women and Birth later this year.

Related BU papers:

Bartholomew V, Clark C, Hundley V, Parris B (2023) Changing the Way We Think About Pain. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 33(1): 30-38

Clark C, Bartholomew V, Mylod D, Hundley V  (2023) The importance of pain histories for latent phase labour. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 33(1): in press

Opportunity: NIHR Committee member development scheme

BU research, Research news, research opportunities

The NIHR is seeking to appoint members to their Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme committees as Committee Member Development Scheme (CMDS) Participants. They are one year development opportunities are for nurses and midwives currently at Band 6 or above, or in an equivalent academic role who have a good understanding and experience of front-line health and care practice. Read more information here.

Charlotte Clayton speaks at Maternity & Midwifery Hour

BU research, Research news, Uncategorized

Charlotte Clayton, a PhD student supervised by Professor Ann Hemingway, Dr Mel Hughes and Dr Stella Rawnson, recently spoke about her doctoral research with Professor Trixie McAree as part of a Maternity and Midwifery Hour.  Charlotte’s research is exploring the Pregnancy and Postnatal Experiences, and birth outcomes of women and babies Living on a Low-income, and the role of continuity models of midwifery care in the reduction of health inequalities.  A recording of the Charlotte’s contribution to the meeting can be viewed HERE.  Congratulations Charlotte.

Erasmus+ teaching in Nepal

international, Knowledge Exchange

BU professors Vanora Hundley and Carol Clark are currently in Nepal as part of an exchange between Bournemouth University (BU) and Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Kathmandu, Nepal.

They have enjoyed discussing research with the Masters in Public Health students at MMIHS, whose research proposals include topics as diverse as stress and burnout, musculoskeletal injuries in hand-loom workers, and occupational health of high altitude porters.

Yesterday they were teaching the students as part of their Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit. Vanora outlined the history of Safe Motherhood and the group had a detailed discussion about the causes of maternity mortality and strategies to improve care for mothers and babies. Carol gave a lecture on urinary incontinence (including teaching the class how to do pelvic floor exercises) and explored how we handle taboo subjects such as this.

Carol and Vanora had an opportunity to meet with students from MMIHS who had recently returned from their exchange with Bournemouth University. The students spoke about how their time in Dorset had enabled them to learn about health in the UK and to share their expertise in delivering public health in a low income country.

The Erasmus+ exchange promotes cross-border education and knowledge exchange. It facilitates networking, enables capacity building and provides opportunities for future collaboration.

BU professors lead research workshop at Kathmandu University, Nepal

international, Research Centres, Training

Prof Carol Clark and Prof Vanora Hundley travelled to Dhulikhel in the Kavrepalanchok District of Nepal to deliver a workshop on research methodology.

The attendees included nurses, lecturers and senior academics from Kathmandu University. Together the group discussed the research gaps in women’s health in Nepal and the types of studies needed to help build evidence for practice.

Like many countries, research into women’s health is a neglected area but one that is beginning to gather strength. The discussion identified research gaps in specific areas of health, such as postnatal care and nutrition, and also cross-cutting themes, such as empowerment and education. Next steps for research collaboration were also discussed.

The workshop was supported by Erasmus+ and Green Tara Nepal (GTN).  Erasmus+ is the European Commission’s flagship for financial support of mobility for Higher Education students, teachers and institutions. Bournemouth University has been working with GTN for the last two decades and has collaborations with BU academics including Prof Edwin van Teijlingen, D. Pramod Regmi, Prof Carol Clark, Dr Nirmal Aryal, Dr Shanti Shanker, and Prof Vanora Hundley.

 

50th PhD viva as external

international, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Late last week I had the pleasure of conducting my 50th Ph.D. viva as an external examiner.  The first Ph.D. viva as external examiner was in 2004 at the University of Durham.  Over the years most have been at universities in the UK, but I have also had the pleasure of conducting viva in Ireland, the Netherlands, Nepal, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Denmark and New Zealand.  Technically three of these were not a traditional Ph.D. viva, as it included one Doctorate in Professional Practice (at The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen), a D. Phil. at the University of Oxford and acting as pre-examiner for a Ph.D. at a university on Finland.  In addition I have also acted six times as an internal examiner at the University of Aberdeen (n=3) and Bournemouth University (n=3).  Over the years some of the experiences related to examining and supervision Ph.D. theses have resulted in papers and book chapters [1-5].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E (2007) PhD theses: the pros and cons (letter), Times Higher Education Suppl. Issue 1808 (August 24th): 15.
  2. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4.
  3. Wasti, S.P. Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2022) Writing a PhD Proposal, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 176-183.
  4. Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Converting your Master’s or Doctoral Thesis into an Academic Paper for Publication, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 184-189.
  5. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., Poudel, K.C. (2022) Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”, Journal of Education & Research 12(2): 61-74.